MENTAL HEALTH - INFORMing
Learning Playlists > Mental Health – Informing
According to the literature, 3.8 million U.S. children have unmet mental health needs. Of children with an identified mental health need, only a little bit over half, 51% get the mental health support they need. Of those students, 58% get that help in schools. There is also a shortage of mental health providers, and many barriers to people finding linguistically and culturally appropriate services on top of other barriers that we know exist in school communities. For many students, schools are the first and only setting in which they receive behavioral health supports. This is why this topic of mental health literacy is so critical for schools and districts.
The information below is recommended for schools or districts who have done some work implementing mental health systems but need additional resources and support to ensure this work is successful. These resources focus on mental health literacy and promotion (Tier 1), which are fundamental components of school or district-wide student mental health supports.
You are ready for the “informing” stage of the Mental Health Pillar if you and your teams understand best practices for comprehensive school mental health across multiple tiers and are ready to assess your needs, create or improve your behavioral health teaming structures, and build stronger Tier 1 services. Click here for our Action Planning Guide to help you through the process of creating an action plan that will help your school move towards becoming a more resilience-supportive school community.
- 45 mins
The School Mental Health Quality Assessment is designed for schools to assess the comprehensiveness of the school mental health system and identify priority areas for improvement. The assessment covers seven domains: 1) Teaming; 2) Needs Assessment and Resource Mapping; 3) Mental Health Screening; 4) Mental Health Promotion – Tier 1; 5) Early Intervention and Treatment – Tier 2 & 3; 6) Funding and Sustainability; and 7) Impact. The assessment is best done as a team that has broad and diverse participation to ensure meaningful assessment, successful planning, and implementation. There is also a version that can be used at the district level. Click here for the Assessment Guide to help your team through this process.
You can take the School Mental Health Quality Assessment on the RSSI site at www.rss-illinois.net. For a PDF of the school version of the assessment, click here. For the district version of the assessment, click here.
For more information about the School Mental Health Quality Assessment, visit the SHAPE System at the National Center for School Mental Health by clicking here.
- 45 minutes
This course helps school administrators and mental health staff understand the history of behavioral health teams (BHT) and how this teaming structure can help support mental health concerns. Explore how BHT aligns with the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) and other frameworks and reflect on current systems related to the role of school leaders, school-level teams, mental health supports, and partnerships with community-based providers. Then, get a team together and plan for the next steps needed to get your school ready for a BHT.
- 45 minutes
Comprehensive school mental health systems provide an array of supports and services that promote positive school climate, social and emotional learning, and mental health and well-being, while reducing the prevalence and severity of mental illness. This 2019 guide from National Center for School Mental Health offers collective insight and guidance to local communities and states to advance comprehensive school mental health systems. Contents were informed by examination of national best practices and performance standards, local and state exemplars, and recommendations provided by federal/national, state, local and private leaders. Click the link to for the guide: Advancing-CSMHS.
- 12 minutes
There are many ways in which work on mental health and social emotional learning reinforces and supports one another, and these collective efforts impact emotional well-being. Part of the challenge is clarifying how these efforts coincide and how they differ. Through the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Learning Collaborative, CASEL is working alongside the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH). As part of this collaborative, educational leaders explore how social emotional learning and comprehensive school mental health contribute to overall emotional well-being, focusing in on four key areas of work that unite these two efforts. View a helpful infographic and learn more by clicking on this link.
- 8 minutes
As student mental health issues reach crisis proportions, schools and teachers are playing a larger role than ever providing support. As schools try to figure out how to address and serve students’ growing mental health needs while keeping them academically focused, many middle and high school educators interviewed for this article—in districts large and small, urban and rural—feel caught in the middle of an impossible situation.
What’s the Role of Teachers in Supporting Student Mental Health? | Edutopia
- Mental Health Awareness and Literacy (websites and resources)
- 15 minutes
One in six U.S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year, and half of all mental health conditions begin by age 14. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), behavior problems, anxiety, and depression are the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders in children. Yet, about half of youth with mental health conditions received any kind of treatment in the past year. NAMI believes that public policies and practices should promote greater awareness and early identification of mental health conditions. NAMI supports public policies and laws that enable all schools, public and private, to increase access to appropriate mental health services. Check out these websites and resources to promote and support mental health in schools.
This website is packed with information on mental health-related topics. Their team creates high quality mental health literacy information, research, education and resources. Materials are provided in a variety of mediums that include videos, animations, brochures, e-books, face-to-face training programs, and mental health literacy curricula for elementary and high schools. Materials are specifically designed to meet the needs of children, youth, young adults, families, educators, community agencies and health care providers.
- Mental Health Literacy: Definition, Importance, and Impact (websites and resources)
- 10 minutes
It is important for prospective public health professionals to understand what mental health literacy is. A useful mental health literacy definition is: the knowledge of and ability to learn about mental health. This includes general knowledge of the signs and symptoms of as well as the treatment resources for mental illnesses, and the ability to recognize, manage, and seek support for mental health issues. Mental health literacy starts with recognizing the foundations of good mental health. Check out this website from Tulane University for more information on mental health literacy. Click on the link to read: Mental Health Literacy: Definition, Importance, and Impact – School of Public Health
The Mental Health Literacy pyramid shows four distinct, yet interrelated states that help us understand and act on our mental health. The pyramid is not a continuum – we do not progress from one level of the pyramid to another, and we can even experience each state simultaneously.
- Video: Mental Health Literacy Pyramid Explained
- Infographic: Mental Health Literacy Pyramid
- 15 minutes
Schools can reference this example of a mental health strategic plan that outlines and illustrates the actions taken to build practices and procedures for a school district committed to addressing the mental health needs of students as well as improving mental wellness for all.
- 10 minutes
Academic accountability pressures focus the energy of educators on academic content and toward maximizing instructional time. Because most children and youth may not display outward signs of distress, we may assume that we can quickly move on from the trauma of the pandemic, increasing economic distress, overt racial discrimination, mass shootings, and many other collective traumas. As educators work toward promoting academic success, remember there are resources that help with the social, emotional, and mental health needs of all the members of our school communities. Understanding the A-B-Cs of mental health and illness is the first step to improving outcomes. Schools can be the place where we destigmatize mental illness and teach children and youth how to foster mental health. 30 Days of Mental Health campaign goals include:
- keeping students’ mental health at the forefront of our minds throughout the academic year.
- reminding educators, parents, and caregivers that recovery from trauma takes time.
- ensuring that educators, parents, and caregivers have the knowledge and tools to promote positive mental health
- 15 minutes
The Mental Health and High School Curriculum Guide developed in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association provides a complete set of educational tools to increase understanding of mental health and mental disorders among both students and teachers. The guide focuses on training teachers to be comfortable with their own knowledge of mental health and mental disorders, and then empowers the teachers to share this knowledge with their students through a curriculum delivered in a multiple module format. The program uses a variety of interactive sessions that help to promote dialogue among students, as well as with their teachers. Discussing mental health and mental illness in a supportive, familiar environment enables youth to feel safe, ask questions, gain knowledge, combat stigma and develop their own opinions of the world around them. The teachers training materials are provided for free, and many of the other materials are incorporated into this curriculum site.
Mental Health and High School Curriculum Guide (Version 3) – Mental Health Literacy
- 30 minutes
Download a MHL toolkit for youth to help young people who want to make a difference in mental health. The toolkit was created with real youth voices and lived experiences. Participants gain knowledge, tools, and encouragement to be advocates for mental wellness in their lives and communities and learn the core framework of mental health literacy. MHLC also offers live workshops.
Mental Health Literacy (MHL) is a critical piece of education and a proactive solution to the current mental health crisis. MHL includes four core components: understanding how to foster & maintain positive mental health; understanding common mental health disorders, signs & symptoms, and treatments; understanding how to seek help effectively; and understanding stigma and strategies for stigma reduction.
Click here to download a copy of the toolkit.
